Sketch of Lakhota, a Siouan Language. In: Handbook of North American Indians, Vol 17: Languages

1. Phonology

Table 1 gives the consonant phonemes of Sioux, and
table 2, the vowels. The discussion that follows specifies
the significant variants of these phonemes for the Teton
dialect. Although the transcription is phonemic, it uses
and adapts some conventions and diacritics from earlier
practical orthographies and uses capitalization and punc-
tuation in accordance with written English norms.

Table 1. Lakhota Consonants

Labial

Dental

Palatal

Velar

Post Velar

Glottal

Obstruents

stops

voiceless plain

P

t

c

k

voiceless aspirated

ph

th

ch

kh

voiceless glottalized

P ?

t ?

c 9

k ?

voiced

b

€

fricatives

voiceless plain

s

s

K

voiced

z

z

8

Resonants

nasals

m

n

h

lateral

I

Glides

w

y

441

SKETCH OF LAKHOTA, A SIOUAN LANGUAGE

Table 2. Lakhota Vowels

Front

Central

Back

high oral

i

u

nasal

i

H

mid

e

o

low nasal

Q

oral

a

Stress and Pitch

relative loudness, high pitch
Diacritics used in phonetic transcriptions:
v less loud than vowels stressed
A fading loudness, high falling pitch
v increasing loudness, high rising pitch

Rood, David S. and Allan R. Taylor. 1996. Sketch of Lakhota, a Siouan
Language. In: Goddard, Ives (ed.) Handbook of North American Indians
Vol 17: Languages. Washington: Smithsonian Institution.